The Grand Jury decision not to indict an NYPD officer for choking Eric Garner to death is a shocking travesty of justice, but why were police harassing Garner in the first place?
The answer; He violated New York City’s ridiculous cigarette tax laws. Eric Garner was summarily executed for avoiding taxes.
Garner was tackled by several cops and put in an illegal chokehold by Officer Daniel Pantaleo during an incident in Staten Island earlier this summer. Video footage clearly shows that Garner was not resisting arrest and was not acting aggressively towards the officers. The 43-year-old father of six begged for his life, telling officers he couldn’t breathe, before dying moments later in what the medical examiner’s office ruled a homicide caused by the chokehold.
Garner was choked to death for the crime of selling untaxed cigarettes, so-called “loosies”. His fatal encounter with the NYPD would not even have occurred if not for New York’s punitively insane cigarette tax, which levies an additional state tax of $4.35 per pack in addition to a further city tax of $1.50 per pack, driving an underground economy which accounts for over half of all cigarettes consumed in New York State.
Cigarette smuggling has increased 59 per cent since 2006 in response to a 190 percent hike in cigarette tax during that same period.
“Garner chose to participate in the booming underground cigarette market as a smuggler. Since 2009, he had been arrested eight times for selling loosies, which are popular among people who can’t afford a full pack because of the excessive taxes,” writes Lawrence J. McQuillan, noting that NYPD chief Philip Banks issued an order to crack down on vendors of smuggled cigarettes just days before Garner died.
In November 2013, Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed a bill which increased “enforcement on vendors who attempt to evade taxes.”
“These events confirm that police are ultimately the enforcers of the tax code, and every vote for higher taxes gives police increased authority to exert more force on citizens in more situations. Higher excise taxes inevitably lead to more violent clashes between police and smugglers,” concludes McQuillan.
The responsibility for Garner’s death should not be shifted away from Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who clearly should have been put on trial for manslaughter, but the entire situation would not have arose in the first place if not for New York’s obsession with high taxes.
Many reacted to the non-indictment on Twitter by referring to the tax issue.
Garner would never have been stopped were it not for the cigarette excise taxes. That’s why police were there. Insane.
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) December 3, 2014
Eric Garner doing 2 of the most American activities: Making money and avoinding an unfair tax. It pissed off NYC royalty & they killed him
— Rusty Shackleford (@whalekock) December 3, 2014
Cigarette Smuggling (what Garner was accused of) is basically tax evasion. Eric Garner was MURDERED over ALLEGED TAX EVASION.
— Shock G (@Parkour_Lewis) December 3, 2014
So Eric Garner was killed for selling cigarettes without paying tax… Yet America's own companies tax-dodge BILLIONS and get away with it.
— mayonnaise boy (@FoolishWiseGuy) December 3, 2014
Let's no forget that not only was Eric Garner's death tragic, it was unnecessary. He was attacked for evading a cigarette tax!
— Peace, Love, Tony (@tonybalogna) December 3, 2014
If you’re mad at the idiotic cigarette excise tax law that Garner died over, tell @MikeBloomberg . He support it.
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) December 3, 2014
So we're not going to talk about the fact that Eric Garner was being arrested for violating NYC's really stupid cigarette taxes, right?
— RB (@RBPundit) December 3, 2014
View the aftermath of Garner’s arrest below.
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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor at large of Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com.
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